After leaving Qiaoshe Hall, Di Yiqiu brought Huang Rang back to Xuanwu Si.

By this time, evening was approaching. The topics discussed by the tea stall vendors on the roadside had all become last night’s strange dream. Clearly, people had discovered the anomaly. But this dream had come so suddenly and affected such a wide area. People debated back and forth but couldn’t determine what the problem was.

However, one person had vaguely sensed the key!

Yuhu Xuanzong.

The moment Xie Hongchen awoke from his dream, he immediately realized something was wrong. His eyes stung sharply, sensitive to light and bleeding when exposed to wind—so much so that when he opened his eyes, he thought he was still in the dream. It wasn’t until he saw the furnishings around him that he suddenly realized—the dream had clearly been set ten years ago.

The discomfort in his eyes made him immediately check his cultivation level. After all, in the dream, not only had his eyes been injured, but his cultivation had been completely lost! And when he tested it, Xie Hongchen was even more alarmed—his cultivation had decreased by a full thirty percent.

Recalling everything from the dream, Xie Hongchen naturally attributed the crux of the matter to one person—Huang Rang.

Thinking of this name again, Xie Hongchen could no longer distinguish whether the threads of pain came from his eyes or from his heart. But he didn’t have much time for reminiscence. He left Yeyun Hall. The urgent matter at hand was naturally to find Xie Lingbi.

In the dream, Xie Lingbi had also been seriously injured. If his injuries were related to the dream, then what was Xie Lingbi’s current condition?

Xie Hongchen walked out of the hall doors. The wind lanterns outside made his eyes feel as if they were being pierced by needles. He could only find a piece of plain gauze to cover his eyes. With the light softened, the pain in his eyes lessened. He rose on the wind and hurried to Anlei Peak. Anlei Peak was actually very close to Diancui Peak. Riding the wind, he arrived in an instant. But in just that brief moment, he suddenly recalled what that person had said in the dream: “Diancui Peak and Anlei Peak are separated by only a short distance. I thought that with your position as sect master, finding me wouldn’t be too difficult a task no matter what.”

It turned out the two peaks truly were this close.

Xie Hongchen walked along the stone path carved with lotus patterns on Anlei Peak, memories flooding past the embankment of reason, catching him off guard. This wasn’t the time for romantic sentiments, he thought to himself. As the sect master of Yuhu Xuanzong, having encountered such a strange incident, he must immediately investigate the truth, not brood alone in sorrow.

So the moment the wound in his heart began to ache, he pressed it down.

He stood before the hall and called out: “Disciple Xie Hongchen requests an audience with Master.” The hall-guarding disciples of Anlei Peak, seeing it was him, naturally dared not obstruct him. They bowed slightly and withdrew to the side, though their gazes remained strange, their expressions full of things left unsaid.

Worried about Xie Lingbi, Xie Hongchen didn’t inquire further. However, during the wait, he naturally thought of another person. He ordered the hall-guarding disciples: “Go immediately to the outer sect and summon Xie Yuanshu to Anlei Peak.”

The hall-guarding disciples acknowledged the order and departed.

At that moment, the Luofu Hall of Anlei Peak opened.

Xie Lingbi’s voice came out: “Enter.”

Knowing something was amiss, Xie Hongchen went in and didn’t forget to close the hall doors. Xie Lingbi’s face was pale and covered in sweat. Over these years, he hadn’t concerned himself much with affairs, living free and easy. It had been a long time since he’d been in such a wretched state.

Yes, wretched.

His sweat had soaked through his clothes, wet hair plastered to his forehead, breath slightly labored, as if he still hadn’t recovered from that nightmare.

Xie Hongchen’s heart sank as he said, “It seems Master also had a nightmare.”

Xie Lingbi couldn’t even spare the energy for surprise. He said, “Did you also dream of that wretch Xie Yuanshu’s actions?” Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something and said, “In the dream, you were also injured! Your eyes…”

Xie Hongchen removed the plain gauze from his eyes. In the candlelight, Xie Lingbi finally saw his eyes clearly. He deliberately turned slightly aside, intentionally avoiding the direct light of the candles. But the blood vessels in his eyes were intertwined, making both eyes completely bloodshot.

“Come here!” Xie Lingbi beckoned.

Xie Hongchen approached. Xie Lingbi examined him carefully and said, “No external injuries. Can you still see?”

“Yes. But I’m sensitive to light and wind, there’s stabbing pain, and tears come easily.” Xie Hongchen remained relatively calm. He paused, then continued, “This disciple has less than seventy percent of his power remaining. What is Master’s condition?”

Xie Lingbi’s fury nearly burst from the top of his head: “Exactly the same as yours.”

Losing thirty percent of one’s power for no reason—for someone of his cultivation level, this loss was truly too devastating. And what made it even more infuriating was that the cause remained unknown.

Xie Hongchen was much calmer. He asked, “I remember in the dream, Master was struck by the Soul-Coiling Bone-Fixing Needle. Has the injury site been affected?”

Xie Lingbi froze. He unconsciously reached to touch his lower back, then quickly went rigid—his lower back was completely numb. It had no sensation at all. Seeing his expression, Xie Hongchen knew something was seriously wrong.

Sure enough, Xie Lingbi stood up and slowly walked a few steps.

After a long moment, he said in a low voice, “The waist and abdomen area has no sensation.”

Such an injury, for a cultivator whose energy must circulate throughout the body, was like a hidden ailment buried within, liable to erupt at any moment. In his extreme anger, Xie Lingbi instead regained some measure of reason. He asked, “This matter is suspicious. It seems someone has specifically targeted you and me!”

Xie Hongchen lowered his eyes. He naturally knew who it was.

In the dream, Huang Rang had wept as she told him about her dream.

At that time, Xie Hongchen had only found it absurd—that she would do such incomprehensible things because of a dream. Back then, he had always believed that Huang Rang had fallen into demonic possession, trapped in delusion.

But what if what she said was true?

What if she truly had been struck with the Soul-Coiling Bone-Fixing Needle and imprisoned in Anlei Peak for ten years?

Xie Lingbi raised his head, about to mention Huang Rang. Outside Luofu Hall, a disciple reported: “Old Ancestor, Sect Master. The eldest young master is gravely injured and has been confined to his bed. He truly cannot come!”

Xie Lingbi was greatly shocked. Only then did he recall Xie Yuanshu’s fate in the dream. Though he had been immobilized in Anlei Peak in the dream, he had heard clearly the discussions of the disciples outside the hall.

Xie Yuanshu had attempted to establish himself as sect master and was besieged and killed by Di Yiqiu, He Xijin, and others working together.

Then his current injuries were probably much more severe.

Xie Hongchen was also startled and said, “He must truly be gravely injured. Master, why don’t you go take a look?”

“That wretch!” Xie Lingbi cursed furiously. “If not for him, how would you and I have come to this!”

Xie Hongchen could only persuade: “Elder Brother was momentarily confused, but he is after all Master’s own flesh and blood. In my view, in this matter he was merely being used by someone.”

“Used?!” Xie Lingbi’s brow furrowed. He also immediately thought of one person—Huang Rang. Had that lowly maid done something? Impossible. She had been struck with the Soul-Coiling Bone-Fixing Needle. No one in the immortal sects could remove this needle.

Who could save her?

Xie Lingbi quickly dismissed this suspicion. He turned and said, “I’ll go to the outer sect to take a look.”

Xie Hongchen saw him off from Anlei Peak, watching him descend the mountain, yet he himself didn’t leave. Luofu Hall stood silent and still. Xie Hongchen stared at the deepest part of Anlei Peak, where it penetrated deep into the mountain’s belly, never seeing sunlight year-round.

In the dream, Huang Rang’s voice echoed in his ears, rising and falling.

“Hongchen, I had a dream. In the dream, I was subjected to the punishment of the Soul-Coiling Bone-Fixing Needle and imprisoned in the secret chamber at the deepest part of Anlei Peak. I couldn’t speak, and I couldn’t move. I could only recite your name day and night, begging you to look for me.”

“There were many others locked up with me. They were all quiet like me, never making a sound. That place was especially dark, with only the talisman light of the formations occasionally lighting up. Just that tiny bit of light. Rats gnawed at us, centipedes and ants crawled across my face. Their wounds rotted, and their noses were full of maggots…”

Xie Hongchen’s steps faltered as he walked toward the deepest part of Luofu Hall.

As sect master, he naturally knew what lay within this mountain’s belly. Since Yuhu Xuanzong’s founding, it had possessed a sect-suppressing punishment instrument—the Soul-Coiling Bone-Fixing Needle. This torture device consisted of two needles: Soul-Coiling and Bone-Fixing. If they entered the brain, the victim would become like a living corpse. This punishment had never been lifted by anyone to date. If the needles were forcibly removed, the criminal would surely scatter into ash and vanish, dying body and soul.

Over the years, those evil cultivators who fell into Yuhu Xuanzong’s hands had all been subjected to this punishment and imprisoned in the depths of Luofu Hall.

Xie Hongchen walked through the long corridor, hearing that person’s words, each one written in blood.

—”At first, I still held hope. I recalled our past over and over again. I felt that no matter what, even if it was just a woman you knew who had disappeared, you would at least search a little. Diancui Peak and Anlei Peak are separated by only a short distance. I thought that with your position as sect master, finding me wouldn’t be too difficult a task no matter what. I used the flickering talisman light to record time. You once told me that the brightening and dimming of talisman light equals one breath. I counted them like this, not daring to make a single mistake. A year passed.”

Xie Hongchen quickened his pace. In the dark corridor, only the faint talisman light flickered and died.

The brightening and dimming of talisman light equals one breath. Did I ever say such words to you? Xie Hongchen exhausted his memories but couldn’t find a single phrase. The days he and Huang Rang spent together were actually very few, mostly at Qilu Terrace.

In countless fragmented memories, their time together was like repeated pages of time.

He couldn’t turn up those subtle differences.

“In the second year, I could no longer keep track of time. Rats ran over my head. I was too frightened and forgot to count. By then, I gradually understood that you wouldn’t come. Even though we were separated by only one mountain peak, you still wouldn’t come. You wouldn’t offend your master for my sake. Actually, I shouldn’t resent you. You despised me, I know.”

Xie Hongchen arrived before the stone door. He reached out and opened the door.

The stone door creaked and groaned, as if opening a history buried in dust. Inside the secret chamber stood row after row of people, their expressions vacant, their gazes hollow. Xie Hongchen slowly passed by them. Their bodies were already covered in dust, their original appearances indistinguishable.

The colors of their clothing were also difficult to discern.

So many people nearly filled the entire mountain’s belly, yet this place was completely silent as death.

Only the faint talisman light flickered uncertainly. Xie Hongchen carefully examined them. These former desperadoes who had committed monstrous crimes now looked like clay dolls. Sometimes, they slowly rotated their eyeballs to look in this direction—an indescribable horror and eeriness.

Xie Hongchen was naturally unafraid. He moved among them and finally stopped in a corner.

Someone had once stood here. On the ground remained her footprints and the dust she had shed.

Xie Hongchen bent down to look closely at those footprints.

They were definitely a woman’s.

He raised his head and saw that the person opposite had their nose and ears completely gnawed away by something. Their wounds had already rotted, emitting a foul odor. Maggots twisted and rolled out from the wounds…

“I was married to you for a hundred years, enjoying the glory of being the sect master’s wife. What I sought, you had given. I told myself I shouldn’t hate you. But you were my only husband. After serving you wholeheartedly for a hundred years, I still thought I could rely on you after all.”

Xie Hongchen stood in that corner for a very, very long time.

“Huang Rang.” He called this name softly. The mountain’s belly thus echoed with layer upon layer of reverberations, near and far, high and low. Xie Hongchen closed his eyes, feeling the dust and death energy that filled the chamber.

This place was separated from Diancui Peak by only a few miles. With his speed, he could arrive in an instant.

But he was ten years too late.